AI effects Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) on both sides of the narrative: it impacts DDoS attacks – and it impacts DDoS mitigation.
This blog focuses on the impact of AI on DDoS attacks in Israel, which provides a valuable prism through which one can gain insight into AI’s broader impact on DDoS globally.
An Increasing Number of DDoS Attacks in the Financial Services Sector
Over the past few years, the AI revolution has accelerated at an unprecedented pace, transforming whole industries worldwide. One of the most impacted sectors is cybersecurity, particularly in the field of DDoS attacks.
This year alone, there has been a sharp increase in the number of damaging DDoS attacks targeting banks, credit card and payment processors, and insurance companies, as well as on government organizations, and telecommunications providers. These attacks have severely disrupted critical services for consumers.
Israel: One of the Most Targeted Countries for DDoS Attacks
Israel has seen a 36% increase in the number of DDoS attacks since October 2023. While countries like the United States and Russia experience the highest absolute number of cyberattacks, the frequency of attacks per organization is much higher in Israel.
This is due to the smaller number of organizations in Israel – a country that’s very small. As a result, Israel may hold the dubious honor of having the highest overall risk exposure per organization.
Recent attacks on Israeli payment platforms, which disrupted the local credit card payment infrastructure, demonstrate the disruptive power of DDoS. For example, on November 10, 2024, a DDoS attack took place on Israeli clearing company Hyp Credit Guard.
During the attack, devices used to read credit cards malfunctioned due to a disruption to the communications services underpinning them. Customers at supermarkets and gas stations throughout Israel were unable to make payments for several hours.
No One is Immune – Even the Biggest Companies Are Vulnerable
Tech giants with significant cybersecurity infrastructure and budgets, such as Microsoft and X (formerly Twitter), have fallen victim to DDoS attacks. This raises the fundamental question: Are attackers gaining the upper hand?
The answer is yes. DDoS attacks are becoming more sophisticated each year, and AI is playing a growing role in amplifying their impact.
How AI is Changing DDoS Attacks
Some of the ways that AI is changing DDoS attacks include:
- Faster Identification of Vulnerabilities: AI allows attackers to quickly detect vulnerabilities in an organization’s DDoS protection, making it easier to bypass defenses and take down essential services.
- Lower Costs for Attackers: AI-powered automation reduces the resources and manpower required to execute large-scale attacks, making DDoS-for-hire services cheaper and more accessible.
- Smarter Attack Orchestration: AI enables better coordination of attack timing and the use of multiple attack vectors. This allows cybercriminals to launch highly effective, multi-day, or even multi-week DDoS campaigns.
- Expanding Botnet Networks: AI-driven automation helps expand and manage botnets more efficiently, making it easier to scale attacks across thousands of compromised devices.
The Critical Challenge: Red Team Testing
Although attack methods are evolving, DDoS defense methods are also advancing. However, there is a major gap.
Organizations using traditional DDoS Red Team testing methods cannot fully test their attack surface without regularly disrupting their online operations. Red Team DDoS testing requires implementing real attack scenarios that interfere with online services. As a result, organizations refuse to test their networks more than once or twice a year for limited time periods – leaving them potentially exposed across 99% of their attack surface.
A Game-Changer: Continuous, Nondisruptive DDoS Testing
A breakthrough in DDoS testing allows enterprises to detect and mitigate DDoS vulnerabilities on production without any disruption to online services – before an attack occurs.
To effectively prevent DDoS downtime, enterprises need continuous, nondisruptive DDoS attack simulations that identify and enable remediation of vulnerabilities without impacting real-time operations.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Proactive DDoS Defense
There is no question that the advancement of AI enables attackers with limited resources and sophistication to implement attacks against organizations that have advanced DDoS defense tools deployed. This capability led to the success of new DDoS attack groups and a dramatic increase in the number of DDoS attacks.
However, AI is also reshaping how organizations protect themselves against DDoS threats. The future of DDoS defense is:
- Proactive, not reactive – Fixing vulnerabilities before attackers find them
- Continuous, not periodic – Ongoing validations that ensure defenses stay resilient
- Automated protection – Automated defense that doesn’t rely on manual SLA guarantees.
In summary, implementing continuous, nondisruptive DDoS attack simulations on a production environment allows businesses to identify and fix misconfigurations in DDoS protection before attackers exploit them – leading to automated, proactive protections from DDoS attacks.
This article was first published in Hebrew in TechTalk on the Calcalist website.
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